Blogging has never been an activity of philanthropy. It is undoubtedly true that people engaged in blogging impart a lot of information about different topics across the globe, but what is significantly more important is whether this information is reaching out to people.
There are bloggers who mistake blogging websites as e-magazines and ultimately treat the space as a tapestry to project their literary charisma through words or sometimes paintings. But blogs have a lot more to offer.
The content of the blog is definitely important, but it is more important to make the words of it reach out to readers, who, if they find value in them, would share or recommend the same to their associates. So, here’s a comprehensive guide on how to monetize a blog.
Factors to consider to monetize a blog
The following are some vital factors that needs to be considered to monetize a blog.
Necessity to monetize
Therein creeps in need for knowing the right technique to monetize a blog. As evident from today's digital world, blogs can be based out on any topic, but it has to be a topic of significance with the audience to be targeted absolutely clarified.
For instance, there are food blogs that do not only attract foodies but also those who are maybe struggling to find an apt restaurant or a popular dish at a restaurant when they are planning a date for the first time. These are blogs that suit a wide range of visitors, if not readers, always.
In order to understand what comes in the way to monetize a blog, one needs to understand the fact that most of the bloggers who truly find a hard time gathering the traffic for their blogs are actually ignorant of the basics of online marketing.
A detailed yet simple course on digital marketing, success stories of famous bloggers who had no social identity before they became successful bloggers, and above all, putting forward the urge to learn the unknown can contribute a lot to learn how to monetize a blog.
Focus
Before even thinking about the earning factor, what the blogger needs to pay heed to is the presence and traffic of the blog. And in order to gather that, the blog needs to be built up with a lot of focus and concentration.
It is imperative to follow that a roadmap is important for success and not a map that covers everything. Blogs with no definite subject gradually lose their grip in the digital market and eventually lose the chance to build a customer base, in this case, the readers. Focus is a key hack to make the first step of progress to monetize a blog.
Quality
There is always a tug of war between quality and quantity, almost in every sphere of life. To begin with, quantity is important to make people aware of one's existence. But longevity thrives on quality, and so is money. Blogs might not be extremely frequent, but preferably regular.
The most important factor ruling the monetization aspect is definitely quality. If it is a review-based blog, the quality thrives on acute specifications.
If it is a creative blog, the quality mostly thrives on vocabulary and presentation. That's the catch of the importance of quality in blogging.
Value
Lack of flexibility is an enemy to a good blog. And this can be demolished by keeping the next element of significance in mind to monetize a blog—value. Adding value to a blog points out not only to any educational or tutorial aspect but also the intake of the reader of the blog.
A blog thriving on poetry might not enhance the general knowledge of its reader, but it undoubtedly helps to caress the emotions of the reader and maybe make the reader relate to the blogger's perspective.
For tutorial-based blogs, instead of focussing only on the word aspect, it's a good trick to include detailed tutorial videos in the blog, thereby embedding a YouTube channel for more revenue in the digital space.
Authority
Authority is another important factor in the journey to monetize a blog, and generally, it comes hand in hand with eminence.
It is easier to first build an image of the blogger, preferably through social media, and then drop the link to the blog once an individual is famous enough to secure an audience base. This enables the blogger to drive the traffic in the blog with ease and rapidity.
What are the effective ways to monetize a blog?
Here are some practical methods through which you can quickly monetize a blog.
Affiliate Marketing
Out of numerous ways used for monetizing a blog, the most popular way is to drive the process through passive income. And when there is passive income, the first choice of many is none other than the concept and implementation of Affiliate Marketing.
Affiliate marketing is a commission-based program on the broader level. For instance, if the blogger has chosen his or her subject to be of a book review, then it is a good option to include the affiliate links from a popular eCommerce platform for that particular book or other books by the same offer.
Advertisements
Advertisements form another mode of monetization in blogs, and in this arena, there is a tic tac toe game between the pay-per-click ones and the display ones.
While pay-per-click ones are more beneficial for the sponsors, they don't show any significant impact for the blogger unless the blog reaches out to an average reader base of 1,00,000.
On the contrary, the display advertisements might begin with a lower margin as compared to the pay-per-click ones, but for a moderate range of reader base, they deliver much better results for the bloggers.
Email Marketing
Another most powerful way to monetize a blog is none other than email marketing. College magazines have posters put up on the soft board notifying that the latest edition of the official magazine of the college has been published and is up for sale.
In the same way, emails containing campaigns with links to the landing page of the blog can do the job of notifying existing readers and inviting new readers as well to the blog.
But there is a good degree of risk in here, and that projects the need to pick and choose the correct set of audience. In case the blog is blacklisted by a good number of annoyed recipients who do not relate to the blog and are getting bombarded with notification emails regularly, the reputation of the blog might be at stake.
Selling eBooks and Courses
eBooks and digital courses form a great way to engage more readers onto the blog. However, this works mostly for informative ones or tutorial-based blogs. For instance, there are academic blogs that teach different programming languages with coding snippets.
If a handbook containing segments of code, syntax examples, and some popular problem-solving tactics are compiled in the form of an eBook and displayed on the blog, it is easier for the blog visitors to follow them.
The current learning market being driven by certification courses, a tutorial course link designed by the blogger's team acts as a bonus to the process.
Selling coaching services
Selling off coaching services is another way of significance that can be thought of to monetize a blog. For informative and knowledge-based blogs, this has become a conventional as well as successful approach.
But if the blog surrounds the subjects of music, philosophy, or literature, it is difficult to think of coaching services. In that case, music coaching can be thought of. For literary ones, the famous titles of "How to write your first poem?" can be pondered upon.
For subjects like Philosophy and Psychology, complicated concepts can be taught using simpler real-life examples in the coaching services that would actually relate a lot to the blog. But when there is a coaching service, there is also a forum for doubts and queries.
In case these services are included, the blogger has to make sure that the coaching service up for sale supports qualified people to cater to the questions put forward by the subscribers of the services.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship stands to be one of the most lucrative options in the way of getting one’s blog monetized. But there is also a comparatively high degree of risk that comes with it.
First of all, it is almost impossible to get a good sponsorship without moderate to high figures in the audience of the blog. Secondly, if one passes by that, different browsers are all set to penalize the blogger and team if they find that links are being sold with the blog.
So even before going for the idea of sponsorship, it is imperative for the blogger to study and understand the norms of sponsorship in the digital world.
Conclusion
From the detailed discussion, it is evident that starting a blog is easier as compared to making money out of it. It is highly difficult to generate significant revenue from blogs unless potential strategies of monetization are employed.
However, there is no dearth of opportunities to monetize a blog. But one needs to identify the correct strategy that suits not only the theme of the blog but also is at par with the intended audience.
No matter whichever strategy is employed for a blog, good traffic is always quintessential across all themes and subjects.
